Total profits earned by industrial firms in China hit 425.8 billion yuan ($51.5 billion) in the first five months of 2004, a 43.7 percent jump from a year earlier, the State Statistical Bureau said on Tuesday.
The growth slowed from a 45.7 percent annual rise in the first four months of this year, according to official figures.
State-owned industrial enterprises reaped total profits of 216.1 billion yuan, up 41.7 percent from the same period of 2003, while profits of foreign-funded firms rose 41.9 percent to 137.4 billion yuan, the bureau said in a statement.
Domestic private firms made profits of 39.4 billion yuan between January and May, up 55.5 percent on a year earlier. But many analysts are sceptical of China's industrial profit figures, saying state sector results are driven by big monopolies which still benefit from government protection, while most smaller state firms are losing money.
Among 39 sectors surveyed by the bureau, 38 reported rising profits in the January-May period from a year earlier, it said.
Earnings of mining firms in the ferrous-metal sector rocketed 663 percent.
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